[atchoooo]

Hi all !

We’ve seen a few posts here on the Forum of people looking to track and consolidate their investment portfolio online.

It’s a real pain to keep track of all the fees, expenses and the performance of your account, especially when you have accounts with multiple financial institutions.

We also have this problem and we thought to do something about it.

For more than a year, we’ve been developing a platform to track our own investment portfolios in one interface. We now decided to make it available to the public for free.

Check out Wealthica at https://wealthica.com

It's free (seriously).

Here’s what you can do:

• Import and aggregate your portfolios in one place, automatically.
• Track your net worth and how it grows over time
• Support for multiple Canadian brokerages and Questrade’s API
• Analyze your fees, expense ratio, and performance
• Add custom notes/alerts for particular events
• And a lot more

We want it to be Mint for the Canadian Investors and the Canadian alternative to Personal Capital and Sigfig.

We’re currently improving it and actively seeking feedback from our user. We are also working on ACB and performance reports.

Want to help us?
Try it for free here: https://wealthica.com

Cheers!

PS: Do you currently use some other portfolio tracking software? What is the most important thing the software should do for you? Leave your comments or question below, we’ll answer them!

 

[john.cray]

Hello,

How about allowing investors to manually enter their transactions/positions?
I don't think I would ever provide my full credentials for my brokerage to a third party.

Regards,
JC

 

[atchoooo]

Hello,
How about allowing investors to manually enter their transactions/positions?

Hi John,

About credentials, some brokerage like Questrade provide a read-only API that allow you can authorize Wealthica to collect the data without the need of providing your credentials. Interactive Brokers also provides API-style read-only reports to make the data available from IB's portal. We also favour API access when available and we would be happy to see more institutions offer APIs like Questrade. We support mostly investment portals, many offer only read-only views and do not allow for transactions or require an additional trading password or PIN.

We're working on allowing investors to manually import transactions.

Manual entry of assets (not holdings specifically) is supported but OFX or CSV imports not yet, it's is coming soon. In the meantime you can add assets manually in the "Other Assets" section, track the book/market value fluctuation manually and record income transactions if you want (but it can be time consuming).

I am not sure if most investors would take the time to import all their transactions manually (would you?). The real pain saver is to consolidate and collect the transactions automatically, especially if you have multiple accounts. I personally tried some manual tracking tools and even Excel before we started building Wealthica and I quickly abandoned it.

Martin

 

[pwm]

PS: Do you currently use some other portfolio tracking software? What is the most important thing the software should do for you?

I've been using Quicken for over 25 years doing manual updates and I'm happy with that process. I think your biggest problem, as john.cray says, is that most people will be reluctant to divulge their brokerage account information and security credentials to your website. I would never do such a thing myself. With Quicken I have all my financial data stored locally on my desktop PC with proper backup which makes it much more secure. Quicken gives me the single view of all my accounts as well as a huge capacity for reporting. I applaud your efforts to create the portal website which appears to be very professionally done, but security issues will stop most people from adopting it. To answer your original question I would say that consolidation of all accounts in one view, robust reporting features, and historical data are the most important features I want.

 

[gardner]

I doubt I would use this, but as a thought exercise there are some things I want to see on the Wealthica web site before I would even bother trying:

(1) I need to see an up to date list of the FIs that are inter-operable/supported. If I am a potential Wealthica customer, this implies that I have diverse investment accounts. If I am to get value, I need to know that all or a substantial majority of the FIs I deal with are integrated. Without a solid list, my assumption is "not very many are" and therefore this service is likely not useful to me.

(2) Wealthica's assurance about how they use API access to my FIs is not all that reassuring. What I need is a table of FIs with links to the FI's own policy about 3rd party APIs and how to manage what they can do with/to my account. I don't want to hear from Wealthica how they handle connections to my CIBC accounts -- I want to hear from CIBC how these are handled and what CIBC will do to audit and control the actions of Wealthica.

 

[Eclectic12]

... We’re currently improving it and actively seeking feedback from our user. We are also working on ACB and performance reports.
Want to help us?

Interesting that ACB would be covered as some of the mixed income investments that have extra ACB transactions seem to be misunderstood.

Maybe a suggestion is that if the investment is identifiable as such as investment, a reminder/article could help educate the user for the less understood parts?
Just a thought ...


When I get some time, I may play with some fictional data to provide more feedback.

... PS: Do you currently use some other portfolio tracking software? What is the most important thing the software should do for you? Leave your comments or question below, we’ll answer them!

Broker statements with an excel spreadsheet seems to work fine for me. Though it is easier for me as there is no overlap in the holdings across accounts.


Cheers

 

[like_to_retire]

..... I think your biggest problem, as john.cray says, is that most people will be reluctant to divulge their brokerage account information and security credentials to your website. I would never do such a thing myself......

I can't imagine anyone would do such a thing. Heck, I won't even go so far as to click on the link for the Wealthica site in case it's a scam. I'm even nervous about the security of my own brokerages servers. Any institution can be hacked, and they have entire departments dedicated to be sure it doesn't happen. To offer such sensitive information to a third party app would be foolish in my opinion.

Many investors input all their own information into Quicken or self made Excel trackers. That's what I do. It's not really that onerous. The brokerages are actually doing a lot better at providing performance monitors. TDDI offers this ability now since they launched their new web site.

ltr

 

[AltaRed]

I've been using Quicken for over 25 years doing manual updates and I'm happy with that process. I think your biggest problem, as john.cray says, is that most people will be reluctant to divulge their brokerage account information and security credentials to your website. I would never do such a thing myself. With Quicken I have all my financial data stored locally on my desktop PC with proper backup which makes it much more secure. Quicken gives me the single view of all my accounts as well as a huge capacity for reporting. I applaud your efforts to create the portal website which appears to be very professionally done, but security issues will stop most people from adopting it. To answer your original question I would say that consolidation of all accounts in one view, robust reporting features, and historical data are the most important features I want.

Ditto for using Quicken since at least 1995 and the reasons why.

1) I don't do FI downloads, but I do use Quicken's update feature to get market prices (quotes) for my holdings.
2) I won't allow my financial credentials to reside on a third party website, nor do I want my entire financial* life to reside on a third party website no matter how solid the boiler plate
3) I agree "consolidation of all accounts in one view, robust reporting features, and historical data are the most important features I want."

* And why I don't use G&M or Google options either....even though I could fake the values.

 

[Retired Peasant]

People would be wise to read the Terms and Conditions of their financial institution. Some do not allow you to share your credentials with anyone/any thing (that includes even password managers). I don't care how secure wealthica (or any other program) is, sharing credentials for whatever reason, could cause problems for you.

 

[humble_pie]

[re 3rd party performance, gain/loss & tax calculators] Heck, I won't even go so far as to click on the link for the Wealthica site in case it's a scam. I'm even nervous about the security of my own brokerages servers. Any institution can be hacked, and they have entire departments dedicated to be sure it doesn't happen. To offer such sensitive information to a third party app would be foolish in my opinion.

agree. I don't/won't use these 3rd party apps. The information they can sell even by merely aggregating data is freaky.

The brokerages are actually doing a lot better at providing performance monitors. TDDI offers this ability now since they launched their new web site.

but disagree here. The performance calculators i see at 2 different brokers including the big green suck the bag.

if a client has options, the performance widget will be inaccurate because the broker will show the wrong option pricing in most cases. Margin calculations will also be flawed.

if a client has journalled stock from one account to the cross currency account, the performance widget will be inaccurate because post-journal the brokers will show a false cost base/book value. Margin for these securities will likely be OK though, since today's pricing won't be impaired the way it's impaired for options.


some brokers are using time-weighted rate of return, some are using money-weighted RR, which IMHO distorts more.

i hear from senior reps at both brokers that knowledgeable investors are complaining loudly. I can see that the senior reps understand that the complaining clients are, in fact, correct. I can see that they are funnelling complaints onwards & upwards, but so far the big broker nobs are doing the 3 monkeys, ie playing deaf, dumb & blind.

it seems clear that the IIROC is forcing the brokers to comply with CRM by a certain date this year, whether the data that brokers can retrieve is available at reasonable cost or not ( for cross-journalled interlisted securities, the correct relevant data would be too costly for a discount broker to utilize.) Faced with such IRROC pressure, the brokers are forcing compliance with a lot of fake data.

it's an interesting story. It's far too soon to know how it's going to end up.

 

[marina628]

I have quicken but also been running spreadsheets and doing manual entries for a while.Generally I get each holding balance on first of the month input any dividend or new contribution funds and keep a month to month ROI which drill down to show YTD and total returns. My last quicken purchase was 2014 so looks like I have to do manual stuff there .

 

[atchoooo]

@all

Thank you all for your answers.

I'll review all comments and provide answers and comments. We understand not everyone is comfortable with providing their credentials or even API keys but a lot of people are. Millions of people use Mint or other similar services and do provide their credentials to third party services. We already have hundreds of users and aggregate more than $600M worth of investments. For many people like myself, the convenience of automatic consolidation prevails over the (limited) security risk especially when we are handling read-only portals.

 

[atchoooo]

@gardner

(1) I need to see an up to date list of the FIs that are inter-operable/supported.

There is a link at the bottom our our home page, if you click on it you will get a full list of supported institutions with a checkmark to indicate if we support retreiving accounts, positions, transactions and/or documents. We support 31 Canadian financial insitutinos as of now and we are adding new institutions regularly.

(2) What I need is a table of FIs with links to the FI's own policy about 3rd party APIs and how to manage what they can do with/to my account.

Few institutions provide APIs but we could link to the policy in those cases it seems a good idea.

 

[atchoooo]

@humble_pie.

The performance calculators i see at 2 different brokers including the big green suck the bag. i hear from senior reps at both brokers that knowledgeable investors are complaining loudly. I can see that the senior reps understand that the complaining clients are, in fact, correct. I can see that they are funnelling complaints onwards & upwards, but so far the big broker nobs are doing the 3 monkeys, ie playing deaf, dumb & blind.

That's our view of the situation too. Not only performance but reporting in general, especially online reporting. Our goal is to help fix this. Hopefully we can put some pressure on the FIs somehow

 

[atchoooo]

@pwm

With Quicken I have all my financial data stored locally on my desktop PC with proper backup which makes it much more secure.

I understand you feel more secure but is it really more secure?  Recently WannaCry, other cases or ransomware, phishing attacks and scams for taking control of ones computer you need to be very careful what you install or click on in order not to compromise your own desktop and once compromised it is probably easier to get your sensitive information on your laptop where it's not encrypted vs on a secured and encrypted online service. I am not really trying to convince you here but just a thought

We feel providing the credentials is not that risky especially when the institution enforces a trading PIN, security questions, 2-auth, offers a read-only portal or an API. Someone with only your credentials wouldn't be able to do much harm. But we understand the concerns for sure and I don't think we should try or would succeed in convincing anyone that's not comfortable with it !

 

[Retired Peasant]

@all
We understand not everyone is comfortable with providing their credentials or even API keys but a lot of people are. Millions of people use Mint or other similar services and do provide their credentials to third party services. We already have hundreds of users and aggregate more than $600M worth of investments.

I don't think you understand. It isn't about my comfort level. It's about the terms that my FI have set out. Just because 'millions' do it doesn't mean they will be covered in the case of fraud (whether that fraud has anything to do with Mint or other similar services). It's more likely that those millions haven't bothered to read the T and C of their FI.

 

[pwm]

I agree with you RP. I just snipped this from the TDDI Website in the section where they discuss their "Online Security Guarantee":

This is important: We are not responsible for losses resulting from your failure to meet your security responsibilities. For example, where you:
voluntarily disclose your user name or password.
carelessly or improperly handle, store or disclose your user name or password.
voluntarily allow another person to use your computer, mobile device or tablet.
fail to call us immediately at EasyLine, 1-866-222-3456, the TD Direct Investing Electronic Brokerage Services Help Desk at 1-800-667-6299 or immediately visit us at any branch in the event of the following:
loss, theft, misuse or compromise of your user name, password, mobile device or tablet
if you suspect unauthorized activity has occurred in your TD account(s).

 

[atchoooo]

@Retired_Peasant @pwm It's a legitimate concern but it's not that simple.

That's why we favor APIs when they are available.

We need the more FIs to offer APIs so users can control their data securely and we need more users or FIs clients asking for it. In Europe, in 2016 they voted for Payment Service Directive 2. The directive determined that the data belongs to the user, not the bank and that a bank has no right to allow or prohibit accessing client’s data held in the bank. I am not even sure (I'm not a lawyer) if the clause would stand legally in a trial to refuse to indemnify you in the case of fraud. I am quite sure it could be challenged.

It's especially not clear here in Canada and there is still a lot of work to do in that matter. In many cases in the USA (but also in Canada) Financial Institutions collaborate with aggregating services (for example Yodlee or Plaid). Financial Institutions even consider using aggregation services themselves to offer additional features to their customers (I've seen aggregation explicitly requested in some big Canadian Financial Institutions tender package). BMO Wealth Management uses eMoneyadvisor which offers aggregation features. Most institutions tolerate aggregation since many years (Yodlee) because when some tried blocking it in the past they had to handle angry users and they chose to tolerate it vs loosing customers.

The next step for Canadian Financial Institutions is to allow access to the data without having to share ones credentials. I am confident it will come and more FIs will make APIs available to third parties. It will take some time or years but it will happen.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts

 

[maoisgreat]

yes

 

[rebalancr]

I understand you feel more secure but is it really more secure?  Recently WannaCry, other cases or ransomware, phishing attacks and scams for taking control of ones computer you need to be very careful what you install or click on in order not to compromise your own desktop and once compromised it is probably easier to get your sensitive information on your laptop where it's not encrypted vs on a secured and encrypted online service.

.

Are you guys using an OAuth token to integrate with Questrade? The reason I ask is because I use Getpassiv.com to integrate with my Questrade brokerage account and it uses that same OAuth token which can grant read only access to an account. From what I understand that's pretty secure. Aside from that, wouldn't you guys have been reviewed by FI compliance teams? At least in the case of Questrade.